“THE GREATEST OF ALL THE ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF 20TH-CENTURY SCIENCE has been the discovery of human ignorance.” Lewis Thomas, Lives of a Cell. “OUR IGNORANCE, OF COURSE, HAS ALWAYS BEEN WITH US, AND ALWAYS WILL BE. What is new is our awareness of it, our awakening to its fathomless dimensions, and it is this, more than anything else, that marks the coming of age of our species.” Timothy Ferris, Coming of Age in the Milky Way.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

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DIALOGUE

Life is a cosmic drama in which we all play multiple roles: daughter, sister, lover, friend, mother, grandmother, learner, teacher, etc.

In my role as Adyashakti(and it’s merely a role, folks), I have attracted a few students. But please understand that I don’t consider myself a guru. Indeed, I feel allergic to gurus. (Twice burned; once learned!)

Therefore (to paraphrase Alan Watts): I'm not a guru, I'm an entertainer. I feel deeply entertained by my vision of life and so, naturally, I enjoy sharing that vision (just as soccer fans love to yak about soccer). I hope that those who catch a glimpse of the vastness will also feel deeply entertained.

That said, I'm happy to respond to your questions when I've got time (mark.n.canter@gmail.com). But be informed that I often publish on this blog (or elsewhere) exchanges that I have with correspondents (without revealing any names). In this way I can address a number of people at the same time, which is useful, since we often are going through similar challenges. So don't be surprised if you find parts of our email dialogue posted here on The Way of Wonder.

Search This Blog

Plain Talk about the Unsayable

Like the taste of fresh, clear water, enlightenment is subtle to describe. Yet it is here for the tasting, and even the most carefully chosen words become obsolete as soon as you take the first sip.

Recommended.

Many Westerners have heard bits of teachings from classical yoga about “Kundalini,” a bio-energy said to lie dormant at the spinal base until it is activated and rises to the crown, triggering extraordinary psychophysical effects. Much less familiar in the West are teachings about what might be called the “descending power,” as well as descriptions of a full circuit of life energy, both ascending and descending. This detailed essay compares the teachings of four yogic adepts of the descending power.

Smiling in the Same Language

Eye Opening!

“The eye through which I see God is the same eye through which God sees me; my eye and God's eye are one eye, one seeing, one knowing, one love.” Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1328)

2012 BOOK OF THE YEAR, Bronze Medal, ForeWord Reviews

'He uses solid research to create a wide-ranging, vibrant world" Kirkus Reviews ---- Jalaam, a bastard son in first-century Judea, escapes the bullies in his village by becoming a stable boy with the Roman cavalry. On a journey far from his desert homeland to a forested world called Germania, he befriends Hannah, a beautiful Hebrew pleasure slave. Through grit and skill Jalaam rises to become an Eques sapsarius (Cavalry combat medic) and, ultimately, a celebrated gladiator in Pompeii. But Hannah, now a wealthy consort, believes that Jalaam was born for an altogether different destiny.

SILVER MEDAL winner, 2013 Independent Book Awards!

The Story of Gen, a young woman who escapes a bio-warfare research lab carrying in her body billions of tiny organisms engineered from parts of her own cells. These microscopic entities empower her with wonderful and terrifying abilities as they compel her to complete a journey to fulfill their own destiny. As Gen seeks to learn where her superhuman gifts are taking her, she discovers what it is to be a very human woman in love.

Our daughter is our ancestor.

PUBLISHED IN 10 LANGUAGES. "Weaves a genuinely magic spell." Kirkus Reviews ----- In the blue ice of an arctic cave, a scientist has made an extraordinary discovery: a shaman woman's body, frozen for 25,000 years in a near-perfect state, with an embryo waiting to be born.... They called her Ember, the child of their heart, born to surrogate parents who refused to yield her after birth. Raised among the Quanoot Indians, Ember is as modern as those around her, a young woman struggling with a loneliness and yearning she does not yet understand. Stronger than her classmates, imbued with the power to heal, Ember's soul resounds with the cries and whispers of a time she has never seen, and of a people who beckon her home. Desperate to unravel the mystery of her birth, Ember embarks on a spellbinding journey to find the people who call to her in her dreams. Guided by a shaman who has waited for her return, pursued by the man of science who brought her to life, Ember is drawn to a place where no one else can go--where her ancestors, the golden-skinned people of her dreams, wait for her to set them free...

Shangri-La in Amazonia

PUBLISHED IN 4 LANGUAGES. 'An unexpected, deftly written erotic charge." Kirkus Reviews ---- Two American scientists survive a helicopter crash atop a South American jungle mesa, where they discover a 500-year-old Chinese colony hidden in a deep valley. The city, called Jou P’u T’uan (Prayer Mat of the Body), is a society based on the Taoist practice of sexual yoga: soul-awakening through physical ecstasy. But the population is dying because of its lack of male offspring. As the scientists puzzle out the mystery of the all-female society, an exotically beautiful warrior named K’un-Chien entangles the pair in an erotic triad that could heal their souls—or end their lives.

My latest science-fiction thriller.

“Canter weaves together exciting action, tender relationships and plausible science in this thought-provoking thriller.” Kirkus Reviews ---- Aria Rioverde, a professor of ethnomusicology, is rapidly going blind. She is renowned for her performances of Afro-Caribbean music and dance from her home island of Curacao; but how will she continue the career she loves when she can no longer see? Desperate, she submits to being a test subject in an experimental procedure that surgically implants tiny computers in her retinas and brain. The system restores her eyesight, but unexpectedly her vision keeps evolving—growing more and more powerful. When her superhuman sight enables her to spy a black ops intelligence operation hidden deep inside a mountain, the dancer suddenly finds herself fleeing from armed killers who want the computer implants that are inside her head.

CHECK OUT MY OTHER BLOGS (BELOW)

Collect 'em all!

Selling Storytelling

A smattering of notes and advice on the craft of writing fiction that sells.

Effing the Ineffable

Graduate school essays and reflection papers on Tantra, Kashmiri Shaivism and the non-dual philosophy of Ken Wilber

Contact me: mark.n.canter@gmail.com

I was raised in Kentucky hill country in a
metropolis of 400 tobacco and hog farmers, where I belonged to the only Jewish
family in the universe. In my dharma-bum youth, I hitchhiked and jumped trains
across the Western States and Canada and went through jobs from pizza chef to
surgical orderly, massage therapist to rock-show stagehand. After getting a
journalism degree, I wrote for a few Florida newspapers before becoming senior
editor of Men’s Health magazine. My short stories have been published nationally
and my debut novel, Ember From the Sun, was published in ten languages. I hold a
master’s degree in the Humanities (“With Highest Distinction”) and I teach
World Religions at Florida State University, where I specialize in “subverting
the dominant paradigm.